EL PASO, Texas—When the Covid-19 pandemic caused the U.S.-Mexico border to shut down in the spring of 2020, many retail and other businesses on the U.S. side lost a swath of customers. Gregoria Flores is still waiting for their return.
Ms. Flores’ store, Novedades Yeya’s, sits a few blocks away from the Paso del Norte port of entry in downtown El Paso. She estimates that before border restrictions banned nonessential travel, about 90% of her customers were Mexican nationals from the neighboring city of Ciudad Juárez who would regularly cross into El Paso to shop, eat or visit family.
Now, the stretch of South El Paso Street where Ms. Flores’s shop is located sees fewer border crossers than in pre-pandemic times, and further away from the port, foot traffic is sparser, she, other business owners and employees said.
While retail, restaurants and other establishments have been springing back to life across much of the U.S. as more people get vaccinated and some Covid restrictions ease, many consumer-facing businesses in cities along the southern border have yet to see a rebound, their customers still shut out by travel bans.
“We need our customers back,” Ms. Flores said in Spanish. “The people from Juárez would buy our items in bulk, and it was a lot of them.”
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